Rebecca Logsdon

Rebecca Logsdon was recently awarded the Robert E. Stewart Engineering-Humanities Award for her contributions to advancing the interactions of the agricultural and biological engineering profession and humanities. Through her various leadership activities, she has directly contributed to personal and professional development of more than 8,000 people. In addition to being a second year PhD student, she is part of the Women in Engineering Innovation 2 Reality (I2R) program, Co-Chair of the 2010 ESE Symposium, Women in Engineering Graduate Mentoring Program Leadership Team, Purdue Graduate Student Government Secretary, and the Graduate Student Liaison to the City of West Lafayette. Her level of impact is also notable: mentoring programs/roles are direct one-on-one time where she was able to work with people individually to help them with their own goals; speaking and outreach engagements through which she was able to inspire and introduce the profession of engineering and specifically agricultural and biological engineering to a whole new generation; in representative roles where she has given voices and 'paying it forward' to and for those who may not speak up for themselves or realize they have a say. In her activities, Becca represents herself as an engineer who cares about quality of life for other people in many different ways. She clearly represents a role model as a female engineer, and has demonstrated to younger women that a woman can use engineering as a catalyst to make a big difference in the world.